A blend of bioabsorbable copolymers is disclosed. More particularly, a blend of 1) a bioabsorbable copolymer obtained by polymerizing a major amount of epsilon-caprolactone and a minor amount of at least one other copolymerizable monomer in the presence of a polyhydric alcohol initiator and 2) the reaction product obtained by mixing polyalkylene glycol and a coplymer of glycolide/lactide copolymer is disclosed.
It is well known in the art that surgical sutures may be coated to enhance certain physical characteristics of the suture, such as the ease of a sliding a knot into place on the suture, commonly referred to as knot repositioning or knot run down. Suitable surgical suture coatings must exhibit good knot run down without being so lubricious as to sacrifice knot security.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,437 discloses an absorbable suture coating composition comprising the product obtained by reacting a mixture of poly(oxypropylene)glycol and a coplymer of lactide/glycolide copolymer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,949 discloses a bioabsorbable copolymer obtained by polymerizing a major amount of epsilon-caprolactone and a minor amount of at least one other copolymerizable monomer in the presence of a polyhydric alcohol initiator. The copolymer can be used as a suture coating.
Notwithstanding the suitable suture coatings described above, it would be advantageous to provide another bioabsorbable suture coating such that when applied to multifilament bioabsorbable sutures, the physical characteristics of the multifilament sutures are even more enhanced.